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THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT is looking at options that would allow it to take possession of the house where Adolf Hitler spent his early childhood.
The move is the latest in efforts by the government to ensure that the house is not turned to a use that makes it even more of a shrine for Hitler’s admirers. Municipal officials in Braunau, where the house stands, already complain that it draws neo-Nazi visitors to the town on the border with Germany.
Reacting to reports in local media, Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said his ministry expects expert opinions by the end of the month on expropriation — taking the property for public use — if the owner turns down a government offer to buy it. Authorities refuse to identify the owner.
The Interior Ministry has rented the house for years to prevent its misuse, subletting it to various charitable organizations. The building has stood empty since a workshop for the mentally disabled moved out more than three years ago.
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A memorial reading 'For peace, freedom and democracy. Never again fascism. Millions have died' outside the house. AP / Press Association Images
AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
Local officials say the owner vetoed plans to move in a new charity and a school late last year because she was opposed to renovations that would be required.
“We’ve tried very hard to find a solution,” local councillor Harry Buchmayer told the Kurier newspaper, adding: “She does not seem ready to cooperate.”
Grundboeck described expropriation as the “last option,” saying the government hoped the owner would agree to sell. She reportedly has turned down past offers.
Among prospective buyers over the past few years was a Russian parliamentarian who threatened to raze it — a plan doomed to fail as the Renaissance-era building is under historical protection.
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Once heard that the majority of concentration camp commanders where austrian. They protray themselves as victims of nazi germany when in actuality they where willing partners
It looks like Mozarts house in Vienna, seriously. Personally put a religious education center in, open to all, catholic, protestant, Jewish, Muslim and so forth. In Salzberg Castle 14th century, they mass executed tens of thousands of Jews from the castle walls. They have a memorial shrine in the great hall explaining all the details. The acorn never falls far from the tree.
Enough museums perhaps to the victims of Hitler, but if the state can get their hands on it, something like a new facility for mentally disabled people would be appropriate. A section of the Third Reich ‘s victims often forgotten about, liquidated without too much opposition from German medical or other groups.
Is it true that Hitler escaped to Argentina and died in 1962.
With that in mind it has never actually been proved that he took his life and his body was burned. The world just accepted that from the nazis who were found in the bunker.
Yes I’m aware of the Dental records but it’s one of those that just won’t go away.
It’s also been proved that the charred remains were a woman so who knows.
The point I’m making is this whole suicide/set on fire scenario came from his own SS, was swallowed by the Russians and then everyone else.
I used to be amazed at the lack of knowledge that the average Shinner had about the party’s association with Hitler and his Nazis. I also used to think that they were capable of independent thought. I now accept that my initial impressions were incorrect. They elect the same leader year after year – 32 years I think – they call it democracy.Robert Mugabe has been President of Zimbabwe since 1987; Saddam Hussein was President of Iraq from 1979 – 2006; I need not go on.
Actually Glen there were three sets of remains of remains.Once the Russian and Allied forces had finished stamping them to bits.The female remains are either Eva Braun or Magda Gobbells,and her hubby Joeseph Gobbells were all cremated outside the bunker. It was verified by Hitlers bodygaurd and other officers under interrogation in Soviet captivity.Helps too when you find Adolfs dental records and a lower jaw bone that matches.
Why do anything with it? It’s a historical building with huge importance. I mean, Julius Ceasar was a bit of a a**hole who massacred all across the known world at that time, literally wiping out whole tribes of people, but if we had Julius Caeser’s home nowadays it’d be a great historical monument. Same for Napoleon or any other historical leader. There’s no point in changing it into a a home for gay, black, Jewish, down-syndrome gypsies just to “piss him off” or whatever…that’s just stupid.
What could change the opinion of what this man was, and did? Reading between the lines and remembering several of your recent comments, I’ve a fair idea where you’re going with your musings. Not cool.
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